Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1887-11-02
THE HUMAN SKIN.
"A Pcnnsvlvana Tannery Where It Is Pro-
pared for tho Shoemaker.


TIL E II HUMAN ski
a Pennsylvania Tannery: Where II rs Pre-
/ pared for the Shoemaker. y
Irelncnnhcr that two or three years
ago I. incidentally referred to i prom
inens physicians Of this city wearing
shoes made from the skin Of negroes.
He still adheres to that custom, insist.
ing that the tanned hide Of an African
makes the most enduring and the most
pliable leather known to man.
Only last week I met him upon the
street with brand new pair Of shoes.
! looked at his foot wear. as / always
do-his pedal coverings have an ire
sistible fascination for me-and :said
with smile: is the down-trod-
den African still beneath Your feetp'''
In the most matter-of-fact way, and
without the shadow Of a smile, he
answered: Il suppose you mean to in
qujre if I still wear shoes made of the
skin of negro. ! certainly do. and !
don't propose changing in that respect
until find leather that is softer and
will last longer and present better
appearance. have no sentiment
about the matter. We're I Southerner
in the American sense Of that word
I might be accused of being actuated
by = race prejudice. But I am for
eigner by birth, although now an
American citizen by naturalization.
I fnnohf tho v.nhn1ls1, fhot thu
blacks might be freed. I, would use a
white mans skin for the same purpose
if it were sufficiently thick, and if any
one has a desire to wear my epidermis
upon his feet after I have drawn my
last breath he has my ante-mortem per-
mission -.. Pr
The doctors shoes always exhibit q
peculiarly rich lustrousness in their
blackness. He assures me that they
never hurt his feet. The new pair he
was using when last saw him emitted
no creaking sound and appeared as
comfortable as though they had been
worn a month. Their predecessors, he
told me, had been in constant use for
eight months. He obtains the skin
from the bodies of negroes which have
been dissected in one of our big medical
colleges. The best leather is obtained
from the thighs. The soles are formed
by placing several layers of leather to-
gether. The skin is prepared by
tanner at Womelsdorf. sixteen miles
from Reading. The shoes are fashioned
by French shoemaker of this city,
who knows nothing Of the true charac-
ter of the leather. who often wonders
at its exquisite smoothness and says that
it excels the finest French calfskin.
Do not for moment think that this
doctor presents an exceptional case of
one who puts the human skin to
practical use. Medical stud ents fire.
quently display a great variety of arti-
cles in which the skin or bones of some
dissected mortal has been gruesomely
utilized. and in bursts of generosity they
sometimes present these to their friends,
who prize them highly. One of the
dudest dudes in town carries match
safe covered with portion of the
skin of beautiful young woman who
was found drowned in the Delaware
river. 1t still retains its natural color
Another young man with whom I am
acquainted carries cigar-case made Of
negro skin, q CHASTITY skull and cross
bones appearing on one side in relief.
One of the best known surgeons in this
country, who resides in this city, has a
beautiful instrument case entirely
covered with leather made from an
Africans skin. A young society lady
of this city wears a beautiful pair of
dark slippers, the remarkable lustrous-
ness of whose leather invariably excites
the admiration of her friends when they
see them. The young doctor who pre-
sented them to her recently returned
from an extended foreign tour, and he
told her that he had purchased them
from a Turk in Alexandria and that he
did not know what sort of leather they
were made Of. but he supposed it was
the skin of some wild animal. AS
matter of fact, the skin came from 4
negro cadaycr which once was prone on
a Jefferson College dissecting table, and
the leather was prepared in Womels-
dorf. The rosettes on the slippers were
deity fashioned from the negro's knky
hair.-Phtladelphia Ne,os. 80.
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